The first Rin
by Blahsblah2001
Summary: People always wonder why Sesshoumaru saved Rin's life. Memories from his past, perhaps? Romance, COMPLETED!
1. Chapter 1

Okay, here is another fic about Sesshoumaru, brought to you my me, Blahsblah2001! (I don't own Sesshoumaru, just so you know, or any other characters and even if I do own them I give them to Romiko, for letting me borrow her lovely ones to write fanfictions about.)

Warning: Sesshoumaru may be a bit OOC, because 1: This takes place pre-series, pre-Jaken and pre-pretty much anything else, and 2: The In Character Sesshoumaru is a complete blank, nice to look at, hell to write for.

Also, this story is completed, but I'm going to upload it chapter by chapter, just because it gets read more if there's more than one entry for it on the update board.

Chapter warning: Death, and lots of it.

Sesshoumaru stood on the rock, watching as the water washed around him and then over the falls. He liked this rock, it was a nice place to sit, a nice place to think, and the sound of the water drowned out any would-be distractions, allowing him to focus completely on whatever it was he wanted.

Or, that is, it had been.

Now, he stood on the rock and glared with distaste at the humans who had gathered on the bank. Ruffians and miscreants, by the look of them. They wore battered and mismatched armor, reeked of blood and smoke, and, more importantly, they were pissing him off.

He wondered which would be less work, killing them all or just leaving.

He had just decided on leaving when one of them, carrying what was obviously a new sword, started to wade into the currant toward him. Sesshoumaru guessed it was the sword that gave him such confidence, because he held the thing in front of him, like it could protect him from the specter of death himself. He was mistaken, incidentally, but at that moment he was quite sure he could take on anyone in the world and win.

It helped a bit that he thought he was about to take on a human woman, instead of the decidedly male youkai that actually stood before him. He may have been slightly drunk at the time as well, the last village had had quite an excess of both women and sake, a pleasant combination.

"Watcha doin all the way out there, darling?" He asked. "Why don't you come back in here?"

Sesshoumaru didn't know if he was kidding or not, but hoped for the human's sake that he was not. Drops of poison began to drop from his claws, hitting the rock with a sizzle lost in the rush of the water. The human had almost reached the rock.

"Me and my friends will take real good care of you, eh?" The man drew his sword. "Come down nice and easy, and I won't have to hurt you, babe."

Sesshoumaru wasn't listening anymore, he was envisioning what would be happening to this man right now if he was carrying his father's tessaiga, a daydream he fell back on more and more recently. For this reason he didn't notice as the man reached the rock. He did notice, however, when the man, on one second, it seemed, jumped on top of the rock, grabbed a fistful of his long white hair, and held the sword to his throat.

"Gotter, boys!" He yelled back to his companions on the shore. He was proven quite wrong a few seconds later when Sesshoumaru's claws entered his chest, the poison burning him to death in a matter of seconds.

Sesshoumaru groaned, the smell of burnt human was going to be clinging to him for days now, it was one of those Smells That Don't Wash Out.

Ah well, while he was already covered in the smell he may as well take out the jerks on the bank. They didn't lessen their fate by running. Instead they chose to throw rocks at him, an act of supreme stupidity.

He watched with not a small amount of satisfaction as several of the men were taken out at once by his whip. The rest of them decided to run, but it was too late, for they had incurred his vengeance. He followed them through the woods, taking them off in ones and twos. The last was incredibly fast, but Sesshoumaru got him... Just as he dove into a clearing with the rest of the camp. He let out a strangled scream as he died, and all eyes turned to the youkai, whose whip returned to him and disappeared.

He wanted to leave, the smell of fires and burnt food and blood and human were too overpowering. However, the dozen or so men drawing their swords and rushing at him seemed to have other ideas for what he should do. These ideas leaned less toward 'leave' and more toward 'die.'

He sighed, releasing the whip again. It slashed out once, taking the number of assailants down significantly. The remainder glanced at the remains of their friends. Sesshoumaru could almost hear rusty wheels turning in their heads. Then realization dawned and they sheathed their swords and ran.

Sesshoumaru turned to leave when a small sound caught his pointed ear. It was a whimper, a bit out place in his current position. He decided to ignore it, whatever it was could take care of itself. And if it couldn't, well that was just too bad.

But as he headed into he forest he couldn't help but look back, to see if he heard the sound again.

He did.

And then he thought, and wondered if one of these things that would eventually come back to haunt him, the curiosity of what the thing had been. The sound came a third time, less like a whimper and more like a sob. He decided hell with it and turned back to the clearing. It didn't take even his sharp hearing to lead him to the largest tent in the camp. One boot was still by the door, leading him to the conclusion that whoever was inside had left in a hurry.

Something rustled inside. Hr drew one of the canvas door flaps aside, ducking to go through the short entryway, and was rewarded with a sharp kick to the chest.

This neither hurt nor overbalanced him, but that doesn't mean he wasn't surprised. Without advancing further he turned a critical eye on his assailant. For a moment he was sure he was mistaken, but he was not.

A human woman of about twenty glared at him from the ground. Her hands and feet were bound, and the fact that her shirt was pushed dangerously far back over her shoulders gave him a pretty good idea of what had been happening in the tent when he arrived.

Not his problem.

"Who are you?" She asked him. This also, surprised him. Most humans he had seen either shouted at him that his doom was approaching or, as was more common for women, huddled in a corner and watched the youkai go by.

"It's not your concern."

"What did you do, kill the last head guy? To the victor go the spoils, eh? Well I hope you've got some good ribs." She made like to kick him again.

"Fine. I'll just leave."

"Wait! Won't you at least untie me? You know as soon as you're gone the rest of those brutes will come back."

Sesshoumaru very much doubted that.

"I get the impression you can handle yourself."

"You haven't even got a sword." The woman observed. "Which means you scared those men off another way. Which leaves a total of one conclusion."

"Which would be?" Sesshoumaru asked, trying to act as if he didn't care.

"You're a youkai."

"Very good. However, I already was, in fact, aware of this. Any other brilliant observations?"

"... No actually."

"Then..." Sesshoumaru left the thought unfinished as he caught the strong smell of blood. This wasn't unusual. The camp, thanks to him, reeked of human blood. But this was different. This blood came from the woman. He looked closer and saw she had a slash mark across her side. It was bleeding quite badly, he wondered why he hadn't realized it earlier.

Not that he cared or anything. Humans were remarkably fragile, they died all the time. But...

"You're bleeding."

"Who's the one with the brilliant observations now? Yeah, that bastard slashed me." She grinned at me, an evil smile that almost reminded him of his own rarely seen smile. "I kicked him in the wrong place, he got pretty pissed."

"I've never met a woman who speaks like you do. Why?"

"I dunno, but me neither. Hey, about these ropes-"

Sesshoumaru sighed, knowing their conversation was over. Flicking the whip twice, it cut cleanly through the two sets of ropes. As they dropped to the floor, Sesshoumaru waited for the woman to bolt. He could catch and kill her easily, but suddenly he wasn't in the mood.

He was so busy being disappointed that she had run that he didn't realize that she hadn't moved.

She rubbed her wrists, trying to get the blood flowing back into her hands and feet. Sesshoumaru watched with carefully detached interest as she searched around the tent for something, eventually coming up with the silk sleeping pallet. She tore some strips off it, of varying lengths and widths. And then, to Sesshoumaru's never ending surprise, she shucked off her shirt and carefully examined the wound on her side.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Usually he didn't swear, but the switchboard operator in his brain had just slammed on the panic button, maybe hitting a few others that happened to be nearby.

"Oh? Does it bother you? That's a first."

"No," Sesshoumaru said, directing his interest at anything in the tent but the woman. "But I've never met a woman who would do that, either."

"Really? That's surprising." The woman nodded, content, and started to wrap the strips around her midsection. "Well good news. I'm not gonna die."

Sesshoumaru didn't respond. It was a task slightly more difficult than he would have liked.

"Sure did bleed a lot though. I hate that kind of cut, they hurt like hell."

She put her shirt back on, examining the bloodstained tear with distaste.

"You can look now, Fluffy."

"What?" This woman got weirder and weirder. "Fluffy?"

"Yeah. You wouldn't tell me your name, so I gave you one."

"... But why fluffy?" He had a sinking feeling he knew the answer.

"Because of that huge fluffy thing, idiot. Why else?" She stood up, her head almost touching the top of the tent. "Hey can I get out of here?"

Sesshoumaru stepped backwards, removing himself from the doorway. The woman grinned again, following him out of the tent. Not that there was much to grin at. Riderless horses ambled about, picking at whatever grass hadn't been crushed yet. Several trees that had gotten in the way of Sesshoumaru's whip lay fallen on the ground like giant pick up sticks. One of the tents was on fire.

He felt relatively certain that once she saw the bodies on the ground she would realize what he had done and realize what, or who, she was dealing with. And then, of course, she would either run off or possibly, and this was seeming more and more likely, try to fight him. She did neither of these things, instead she approached one of the horses and began to root through the saddlebags.

"What are you looking for?"

"Some article of clothing that doesn't reek of fresh blood. I go two steps into the forest wearing this and I'll be eaten alive."

That, too, Sesshoumaru doubted. By the smell of it, everything within a five mile radius of the daiyoukai had vacated the premises.

She found a blue kimono, and quickly changed into it. It was too big for her, and a little more baggy then the design had intended. Around her middle she tied a belt of a bluish green.

"Isn't it weird that they would have taken this? I used to know the guy who had this. He lived in my village and I always envied it. I would suppose he's dead now."

"Why automatically assume that?"

She pulled a pair of swords from the bags.

"His katana and wakizashi. He loved these swords more than his children. He must have told the story of how his commanding officer left them to him a thousand times. If they're here he died protecting them."

"That's incredibly cynical."

"It's also very true."

She put the swords back.

"I'd take them but I think his ghost would haunt me into eternity. There's gotta be a decent sword around here, though."

Something sparked in Sesshoumaru's memory.

"Wait here."

He went back through the forest, retracing his steps until he came back to the rock where all of this had started. Out by his rock, the armor of the unfortunate man sparkled in the water. His body had long since dissolved in the poison. Among the armor he found what he was looking for, the man's sword.

After looking more carefully at it. Sesshoumaru saw why the man had gotten such confidence from it. The handle was carved into the shape of a dragon, the design extending almost the full three feet of the blade. The blade itself was a marvel. It looked as if it could cut a line through air itself.

He slid the sword back into it's sheath and headed back toward the camp. On the way back he managed to convince himself that she wouldn't be there. No woman, no human woman, no matter how brave or strong or powerful, hung around alone in forests with youkai. It just didn't happen. That he had learned from experience.

She wouldn't be there.

But she was. Looked kinda bored, too.

"There you are! I was starting to think maybe you took off on me."

Wordlessly, he handed her the sword. She pulled it out of the sheath, admiring the carvings as he had.

"That's a really sharp blade." She breathed. She picked a blade of grass, dropping it onto the blade. It was cut cleanly in half.

"Never seen anything like that before. What is it, youkai blade?"

"No, it's human. I don't know where it's from, though."

"Well thank you. I will use it well." She slid the sheathed sword into her belt. "I've always wanted to say that, you know."

"Where will you go?" Sesshoumaru asked. "I don't care or anything, but most of the villages in this area will react badly to a woman dressed as a man."

"Then I'll just have to leave the area, won't I? Goodbye, Fluffy. Maybe we'll meet again."

"I very much doubt it."

The woman walked off into the trees, and Sesshoumaru went back to the water, trying to get the smell of human off him. The blood staining the bank didn't help any. In the end he just gave up and sat on his rock, watching the water around him rush madly off the cliff to the lake below.

He may have continued sitting there for the next day or so, lost in thought, if the topic he had decided to think about, mostly out of annoyance, was how nasty humans smelled, and whether or not they did this for the single purpose of pissing him off.

And as he thought about this, it occurred to him that that woman, whatever her name had been, didn't smell as bad as most humans did.

But that was stupid. All humans smelled the same. Didn't they?

The more he tried to convince himself that it had just been his imagination, the more certain he was that she did, in fact, smell different from the others. Finally, tired of arguing with himself, he decided to go and find out for himself.

Yaaay! New chapter up tomorrow, because I finally got some unexpected but still unlimited computer access!


	2. Chapter 2

2

Okay you waited for it (good for you, you are more patient then I shall ever be) And here it is! Chapter two, for your reading... uh... pleasure. I guess.

Chapter warning: More random character death. Yes, I do enjoy this. Deal with it.

He was halfway to the camp when he realized that he was being silly, and turned back, and he was halfway back when he realized that it couldn't possibly hurt to go check, and in the end he ended up changing mind, and direction, every few seconds. And then he realized he was being superbly stupid and set off toward the camp, determined to get there this time.

There were far too many human smells there, even without the overpowering reek of blood. Even in the tent in which he had found her, there wasn't anything strong enough to actually identify. He would have to go into the woods after her. Maybe far enough into the woods-

He stopped himself for the thousandth time. What was he doing this for? This is stupid. He was wasting time looking for the scent of a human female. And what if it was different? What would he do then?

Well... He'd think of that once he had the answer to the original question. It's not like he was mortal, with only a few dozen years. He had all the time in the world. And it's not like he was doing anything else.

He set off into the woods.

Meanwhile, about two hours journey ahead of him, the woman in question was sitting in a tree watching another band of marauders go by. Japan was lousy with them, it seemed. And why not? Between the army and the marauders themselves all the men of fighting age were gone.

Her idea had been simple, why not teach the women to fight, to defend themselves and their villages, but, not surprisingly, not many people had taken up that particular cause. Women learning to fight, preposterous.

So she had taught herself. And she was remarkably good.

However, when the band of marauders had attacked her village, she and her father's old sword were not nearly enough to keep them away. Her village had burned, like so many had before and so many would do after.

But even when they had bound her, dragged her off to whatever fate may await her, she had stared back at her village. The few remaining people were gathering, a few women, some old men, a child. And she had laughed at them, because irony, even when painful, was still funny.

Now the band had passed. The branch she was perched on extended over the road, and she flipped upside down, hanging by her knees, to see further down the road. It looked clear. She flipped over again, this time dropping the six feet to the ground. And she started to walk again.

This was a nice road, but she knew it was useless. There was nothing ahead on this road but another burned down ruin, and probably another after that and another after that.

They were like a plague, destroying everything in their path. And they needed to be destroyed, though hell if she knew how.

Idly she wondered as to the fate of the last band she had run into, and how most of them were dead now. That youkai... He had killed them all, and spared her. Why?

Perhaps he had some grudge? But there had been survivors. She had passed a few of them on the road. They had ignored her, maybe because of shock, maybe because on their own their bravery evaporated, exposing them as the plain and simple bullies that they were.

Not that it would have mattered. One on one, she was pretty sure she could take on any man on earth.

The sky was darkening as she headed on. There was the strong smell of fire. So she was right, there was a ruined village ahead. Even as she thought this the flames themselves came into view, then the buildings that were on fire. Sighing, she began walking down toward the village, or what was left of it. There was an off chance that somewhere there was some food left.

There wasn't. There was nothing left. By the looks of it, there had been about ten people left alive, and they had long past gathered everything of value and left. To go where, she didn't know but they sure were gonna try.

Sighing, she moved on. There had to be something to eat somewhere.

Sesshoumaru glanced at the sky, watching the sun get lower on the horizon. This was taking him longer than he had thought. He had run into a slight distraction when another small army of bandits tried to stop him on the road. For what reason, he neither knew nor cared. Once he had determined that the woman was not in fact, among them, he moved on.

(As a side note, this encounter was another testimony to human stupidity, for when the first man was struck down, his sword dropping from it's position only inches from Sesshoumaru's shoulder, the second man immediately assumed he would do better. As did the third, fourth, fifth, and so on for pretty much the rest of them.)

The sun set just as he was passing through the remains of a ruined village. The glowing coals of homes provided a little light, not that he needed it, the dark was no problem for his eyes. Her scent was stronger here, she had spent quite a while looking around this place. Maybe this was the village she was from.

But it moved on, as she had, and he followed after.

Not far past this, her scent left the main path, heading off into the woods. There had been no one else on the road, and no one had passed since, and so her action puzzled him. Actually, she was doing this more and more often, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

Arguing with himself for the millionth time, he left the path, following her. She hadn't gone very far, and he had been traveling quite a bit faster than her.

She couldn't be far...

She was, in fact, right in front of him. She was lying back against a tree, her sword held against her chest. Her eyes were closed, and for a second Sesshoumaru was sure she was dead, his time wasted. Then it occurred to him that she was just doing that 'sleep' thing that humans did so much. Youkai only needed to sleep when they were injured very badly, and then they only did it to pass time until they could move again.

Time to do what he came for. Approaching her silently, he knelt down and inhaled deeply.

There was something different after all. She smelled like a human, but not in that sickening, stomach turning way most humans did.

No, she was different. She actually smelled kind of... Nice.

But WHY?

He stared at her face, trying to pick out some difference, some feature which would leap out and say "I'm the reason! Now quit being stupid and go back to your life!"

No such feature appeared. Well, several of them appeared, the woman wasn't exactly homely, but nothing defining which would throw this whole muddled mass into sharp relief, like the rocket ship FINALLY appearing out of those thousand and a half dots you've been squinting at for hours.

And then he was suddenly glad he wasn't an enemy because she'd be long dead, stupid humans, sleeping through the freaking apocalypse. Maybe this was it's own defense, sleep was, nothing in it's right mind would hurt her like his, the look of peace on her face, her body relaxed, her navy eyes staring dreamily out and -WHOA!

This time, the shock was even worse than when she had kicked him, and he actually did fall backwards, backing out of the compromising position she had just awakened to find him in, namely, four inches from her face.

The little man with his switchboard hit the panic button again, this time he didn't let off the pressure. His heart, which was getting the brunt of this pressure and was not enjoying the extra work sent his voice up to give the man a good talking to, but even he got confused and ended up going out Sesshoumaru's mouth, and none too coherently.

The woman began to laugh, another in the long line of unexpected reactions.

"You're cute when you're surprised, Fluffy."

At this point everything shut down and went into automatic mode.

"Dammit, woman, stop saying that!"

"Saying what? Fluffy? I haven't got anything better to call you."

"Sesshoumaru. Anything but fluffy, but my name, if you must know, is Sesshoumaru."

"My name's Rin. Nice to meet you, again."

Sesshoumaru scrambled to his feet, trying to look as if he had just stumbled upon this spot totally at random. Why had he gotten so close? Moron, moron, moron...

"Perfect Killer, huh? Interesting name. You must have cried a lot as a baby. Or maybe your parents wanted to make sure you grew up fast. I bet you get a lot of fights out of that, don't you?"

Moron moron moron moron oh was she saying something?

"Or do you even have parents?"

"Of course I have parents, don't be stupid."

"Well you never know, with youkai, half you guys just come into being at various ages, and Perfect Killer seems like a name you would give a full grown guy like you and not to a little baby. Or maybe you were a really ugly baby, but that seems unlikely." She got bored with her own train of thought. "So what are you doing out here, anyway?"

"I followed you."

"Oh, gee, I didn't realize. Here's another stumper: Why?"

Now Sesshoumaru had three choices. Listed in order of difficulty, he could tell the truth, he could make something up and look like an idiot, or he could just kill her.

His mind was kind of leaning toward the last one, but that seemed like going just a little bit overboard, and the second was doomed to end in failure.

"You smell strange."

Smooth.

"Is that so?"

"Well, not strange but different, cuz humans smell really really bad," moron "but you don't and I wanted to find out why."

"I don't smell like human? That's really weird."

"No, you do, but you smell different, too."

"Like what?"

"It's impossible to explain to a human, like describing color to a blind man."

"Oh. So what now?"

"I... Don't know. But if I were you I'd give up that sleeping thing for a while. If I'd been a wolf you'd have been dead before you even knew you were being attacked."

"Thank you, that fills me with confidence."

"It's true."

"Well, I can't give it up. Unlike you all powerful youkai, I can't function unless I sleep. It's a reckless but necessary risk."

Sesshoumaru considered this for a minute.

"Then I'll stay here."

"Eh?"

"This is going to drive me nuts if I don't figure out why you're different. You getting killed will hinder me a good deal. So I'll stay here."

"... Thank you."

Sesshoumaru said nothing, but sat on the ground and stared into the trees. Rin waited a moment, then returned to her original position. She was asleep within a few minutes.

End chapter two! Here's the stats so far:

Time to write: three hours twenty five minutes.

Time to write: (Subtracting time spent staring idly off into space) forty-eight minutes.

Time to read: (depending on your reading speed) Twenty to forty minutes.

Shameful request for reviews, carefully disguised as time to review: (based on length) Thirty seconds to a minute, depending on how nice you are.


	3. Chapter 3

Here's chapter three, thanks for waiting. I was supposed to update yesterday, a thousand apologies.

This chapter dedicated to Rei, and thank you for that… interesting analogy, which actually got me uin trouble because apparently you're not supposed to laugh that hard in a library.

He didn't need to look at the trees. He could smell much better than he could see, and there wasn't anything more dangerous than a squirrel for over a mile. There was a fox at a nearby creek, but the water was stuffed so full of fish that he wouldn't bother going after the human.

Sesshoumaru looked over his shoulder at her. She was asleep again. A look of quiet contentment, even peace, was on her face.

Quickly he turned his attention back to the woods, There was no reason to look at some ugly human wench. None at all.

He convinced himself of this for three whole minutes, then looked back at her. No, he was wrong. She wasn't ugly at all. Quite the opposite, actually. She looked nice, she smelled nice... And she was a human. Nothing more.

He turned back to the woods, wondering if he wasn't going crazy. She wasn't a human at all, she was a witch, trying to drive him out of his mind.

He spent the night alternating between watching the woods and staring at Rin. Twice he decided he would kill her, just to get rid of this damn indecision once and for all, and twice he gave up the idea. He ended up spending most of the night watching her sleep.

It occurred to him once or twice that humans had to eat, as well as sleep, but he couldn't really think of anything that they ate, other than rice, and he didn't know where to get any of that anyway.

When Rin finally opened her eyes again, Sesshoumaru was watching her. Not only that, but he was a good deal closer than he had been the night before.

"Good morning."

"How would you know? You've been conscious for ten seconds."

"Its more a greeting than a statement, Sesshoumaru."

"... Oh."

She stood up, slid her sword back in her belt, and grinned at nothing in particular.

"Ready to go?"

"Go where?"

"I dunno. Somewhere with food, I hope. Road's this way, right?" She pointed in a direction at random.

"That way, actually, but there's no humans for a long while."

"Hmm. Well I'll just have to find something then."

"What do you humans eat?"

"You really don't know? Interesting. That would mean that not only do you not associate with us, you also avoid us with what seems to border on phobia."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Meat. Some kinds of plants. Fruits and stuff."

"Fish?"

"Yeah but we'd have to light a fire. Why?"

"There's a creek that way that's been dammed and stocked. You could probably get something there."

"How very helpful of you."

She set off through the woods toward the creek, and within a few minutes they had come to it. The water was full of fish. A fox and two wolves were upstream of them, but they ignored them.

"I bet I could grab one of those right out of the water."

Sesshoumaru said nothing.

"Watch. I'll grab one right out of the water."

Rin rolled up her pants, wading out knee-deep into the water. Sesshoumaru found another rock to sit on, and pretended not to watch.

She stared intently into the water for a minute. Then two. Fish came back into the area and started to swim around her legs. She set her eyes on a pretty big one, and watched it as it swum lazily closer and closer.

"There's a hundred fish! Grab one and let's go!"

"If you need something to do you can light a fire!" She yelled back at him. She didn't think he would do it, though. Grumbling, he slid off the rock and disappeared into the forest.

The fish she wanted was within arm's reach, and getting closer. She slid her hands into the water without making a ripple. The fish, as a demonstration of the great stupidity fish are famous for, swum directly between them, and she grabbed it. It flopped furiously, but she didn't let go, grabbing it by the gills and pulling it out of the water. Trapped in this helpless position, the fish gave up all hope and died.

"Well that was easy."

Sesshoumaru watched all this from the top of a nearby tree. Trees were as good as rocks, and better camouflage. He had expected to be sitting in this tree for at least an hour while the human lunged at every fish in the river, and was very pleased when she caught one right off.

By the time he returned to the side of the water she had already started her own fire, and the fish was cooking, giving off a powerful smell.

"There you are. It's almost done, want some?"

"Your kindness is wasted. I don't eat human food."

"Ah well. Your loss."

She sat cross legged on the ground, across the fire from him. After a second, he sat too.

"So where will we go?"

"You're asking me? I don't know. Don't you have a destination?"

"Not really. Somewhere with people, or, more precisely, food. Now that I've got that, I'm left without a place to go."

"You don't want to be with your own kind?"

"My own kind? Yes. Unfortunately, I don't know where to find them."

Sesshoumaru sat back, annoyed. If she was going to find a human village then following her would be a waste of time. One was bad enough, and he had no desire to go anywhere near a whole village of people.

"Humans are everywhere. They're not that hard to find."

"Perhaps. But not all humans are my kind."

"So you're not human? I thought you said-"

"I am a human, but just like spider heads are not your kind, neither were the people in my village my kind."

That made some sense, he supposed.

"Did you ever wonder as to why I can dress this way, and wield a sword, when most women would rather die?"

"No," he lied.

"Then I won't tell you."

"You might as well."

"No. If you don't care then telling you shall do no good."

"I...please tell me."

"See? You do care. I'll tell you then.

"In my village, there was hardly ever trouble. Every once in a while some demon would come around and cause some trouble, or a traveler would be killed by a beast in the forest, but usually, life was quiet. That's when the war started to reach as far out as my village. More and more young men left every day, whether they were drafted or if they left to avoid such a fate, they were still gone. Soon there was no one left but women, children, and the elderly. While we never went hungry, it was obvious that if a serious threat hit the village, we would be completely wiped out. We needed some force to defend us, and, barring bribing over some spirit to protect us, there was no place to get such a force.

"It was my idea that if we were to train the young women to fight, we would be at least a bit better off. It wouldn't be as good as the men, but we would be far less defenseless than we were already. Not unsurprisingly, the village elders did not take kindly to the idea, when my father presented it to them. The thought of teaching women the ways of the sword bordered on blasphemy.

"But my father saw the sense in such an idea. He, like the other men, was forbidden to teach me anything. But he did give me his sword, and I taught myself. I was thirteen then, still a child, but I grew up quickly, like so many children now must. Five years went quickly, watching the stores and then even the reserves dry up, and watching my once proud village pulled to it's knees.

"And then only three days ago, the marauders attacked. They came in the night, and I was awakened by the sound of my mother calling my name. It was too late for her, or my father, but their killer went down quickly under my sword.

"I was determined to protect myself, at least, if no one else. I saw people I'd known since childhood struck down, defenseless, and it occurred to me that many of them had never even known that there had been a way to protect themselves. I could have killed some of them and waited for the rest to leave, but I acted stupidly, and decided to go after the leader, high and mighty on his horse, watching his lackeys do the dirty work. I tried to kill him, but he was too heavily protected.

"The end you already know. I was captured instead of killed, for reasons I shall probably never know. I figured I'd be killed by them eventually, and was determined to go out fighting, at least.

"And that's when you showed up. So now you know."

Rin pulled the fish's stick from the ground, checking to make sure that it was done.

"You never did tell me what you were doing there."

She took a bite of the fish, chewing expectantly.

"You wouldn't care."

"Sure I would. If you hadn't I'd be dead now."

"Fine. I was out by the river and some of the guys were pissing me off, so I killed one, and the others pissed me off more, so I decided to kill the rest of them. They led me back to the camp, where the rest of their buddies decided to kill me, so I killed them, too."

"And then you found me."

"Yes. By accident."

"Maybe. Maybe fate. You believe in fate?"

"No."

"I do. I believe in fate because of the future. If there is a future, then this is the past. If this is the past, then it has already happened and there is no way to change it. Everything's eventual."

Now Sesshoumaru was completely convinced that Rin's singular purpose on earth was to drive him insane.

"And you actually think about these things?"

"I know, it's really weird. And that's why I know I wasn't among my own kind when I was in my village. They never thought of anything more complicated then what to have for dinner. It was impossible to talk to them about anything."

Sesshoumaru said nothing. Rin stared at him a moment, then shrugged and went back to her fish.

An hour later they were on the road again, Rin walking along commenting eventually on a bird, or how there was water nearby, or how such and such a cloud looked just like a monkey, didn't it? Sesshoumaru walked in silence, wondering how she found such wonder in water or birds, or how she could get 'monkey' out of a random shape of a cloud. He was used to going for days in silence, but Rin's amiable chatter was not entirely bad.

Ah, the first seeds of not-hate are planted! Bwahahahaaaaa!

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If you receive this message, please press the purple 'go' button located in the bottom left corner of your screen. Type a short message. (nice stuff appreciated, flames also OK) Thank you for participating.

If this had been an actual emergency, well, we'd all be pretty screwed cuz there's nothing I can do.


	4. Chapter 4

Fourth chapter. Wow, you guys are really hanging in here! This is, I think, one of the longer stories ever written by me. I think they should put up a record book at like, who has the most stories written, or who has the longest story, or what section has the most stories, or whatever. (The ones I have found: Some name I can't remember with 49 stories written, but I've got about 45 myself, so that can't be right)

Chapter warning: Uh... nothing. Minimal physical contact. But if you're bothered by it, man, you've got problems. Also, a long period of time passing in two paragraphs, which is taboo, but I have done it anyway.

"Are you going to stay awake again?"

"Obviously."

Sesshoumaru leaned back against the trunk of a tree. The fire in front of him popped, sending out sparks of a golden color. His silver hair gleamed in the light, reflecting the light. Rin poked at the fire, putting more wood on where it was needed.

"Is this what you do, when you're alone?"

"If I were alone I would still be walking. It would also, I think, be a good deal quieter."

"Isn't it hard, though, being alone all the time?"

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed.

"Sometimes."

"Is that why you are always moving? Going somewhere?"

"I suppose."

"Where do you go?"

"Wherever I want to."

"That there..." Rin paused, thinking of the right words. "That's true freedom."

She was met with silence.

"But I suppose that means nothing to you, does it? You've always had that."

"And you haven't?"

"What do you know about people, Sesshoumaru?"

There was a pause. Rin thought for sure he wouldn't say anything, but he did.

"Very little. I dislike your species a good deal, but you do have a sense of honor, that I do not often see in youkai. Youkai do not have wars, because we do not see the value of the common good. Humans fight for land, for their rulers, their emperor. Youkai fight for themselves."

"That makes sense, I suppose."

The fire popped again, sending out more sparks. Satisfied, Rin sat back against the tree, her shoulder pressing against the fluffy thing.

"We're completely different," Sesshoumaru said, not looking at her.

"Yup," she said, sounding unconvinced. "Don't let the bedbugs bite."

"I guarantee that there will be no bedbugs."

"I'm glad."

It was almost three in the morning when the last flame of the fire died, leaving only orange coals glowing in the night. Rin had long since fallen asleep, leaning against his shoulder. Sesshoumaru found he didn't really mind. But he did wonder how long he could keep this up. For all of Rin's scoffing, they really were different. Humans and youkai live in different worlds.

But for now, they were here, together, and that wasn't so bad.

In the days following, some of Rin's talkativeness started to rub off on Sesshoumaru. His responses lengthened a bit, and every once in a while it was he who would point out a cloud or a waterfall, instead of her.

Almost a week had passed when they came to another town, which was not destroyed. Sesshoumaru was all for going around, he wasn't in the mood for another bunch of misguided humans trying to kill him, but Rin wouldn't hear it.

"It'll be fine. Don't worry about a thing."

"What makes you so sure? In my lifetime every village I have entered has tried to kill me. And then I have to kill them, and I really don't want to kill anyone today."

"Is that what you do? Just kill people?"

"Yes."

"Well that could be the reason they try to kill you back."

Silence.

"Look, give this a try, all right? Promise me, when we go down here, that you won't kill anyone. And if this doesn't work, next town, we'll go around. Deal?"

"This is stupid, and it will only get you killed."

"What about you?"

"I cannot be killed by humans, but that does not mean that they will not try, and I assure you that they will."

"They will not if you don't strike first! Just promise me, one village, okay?"

"You're not going to give in, and I don't want to stand on this hilltop all day, so fine."

"Say I promise."

"You do this just to piss me off, don't you?"

"Say I promise."

Sesshoumaru muttered some choice words under his breath.

"I promise not to kill any humans."

"See, was that so hard?"

"Yes."

Rin started to make her way down the hill toward the town. Assured that nothing but trouble would come from this, Sesshoumaru followed. When whatever disaster was coming eventually occurred, he would have to leave the town by a different direction, there's no way he could carry Rin up this hill and dodge arrows at the same time.

Stupid humans...

Rin checked her sleeve, making sure the coins she had taken from the saddlebags were still there. It wasn't much, but it should at least get somewhere for them to sleep.

She had no idea why Sesshoumaru was so scared of going down into the village, people weren't bad enough to just attack him on sight, were they? She tried to think of what would happen if Sesshoumaru had come walking through her village someday.

'Well, every girl of marrying age would get themselves onto the street,' she thought with a smile. Even if he was an evil youkai, he still looked like a man. She looked over her shoulder. Better than a man actually. He saw her looking at him and glared.

"What? I'm coming. Watch where you're walking."

Well, she'd just have to wait and see what happened.

Sesshoumaru stayed close behind Rin as they entered the village. There was smoke rising from cooking fires within the homes, but no one was outside.

"This is giving me the creeps," Rin murmured.

"Any minute now, people are going to appear on rooftops, with bows and arrows, and then once we're trapped the guys with swords are going to come out and try to cut us down. When that happens, we are very very screwed, because you can't dodge arrows and I can't kill swordsmen, thanks to you."

"Stop being pessimistic. We'll just explain to them that we want a room for the night-"

"Wait a second. You plan on staying here? No way."

"You can sleep in the woods, then. I will be sleeping in a bed tonight."

"Great. You're staying in an unfamiliar town AND you're going to sleep? Why don't you just kill yourself and save them the trouble?"

"Be quiet. I think I hear something."

A child's head poked out of the doorway to their left. With some obvious prompting, she stepped out of her home, approaching the two newcomers.

"Oh look, they've sent a child to kill us," Rin said dryly.

"She's not a priestess or a youkai. So why on Earth would they send her?"

"I dunno. Hey, kid, you come to kill us?"

The girl stared at Rin for a second, then dropped to the ground.

"No! I would not dream of crossing such powerful mononoke as yourselves!"

"She thinks we're mononoke," Rin said.

A man appeared from behind a different house, calling out to them.

"We are but a poor village! Take the girl, but please, do not destroy us!"

"I see now. When a village does not possess even an illusion about being able to destroy a youkai that is plaguing them, they offer up somebody like this kid, and hope their problem goes away."

Sesshoumaru looked down at the child, who was still pressing her forehead to the ground.

"They're normally older than this. They must have run out of attractive young women."

"Stop being perverted," Rin said, annoyed. "You can get up, kid, we're not going to eat you. Go tell that guy that we just need a place to stay the night."

She pointed to the man who had shouted to them, He ducked, as if he expected her fingers to explode. The girl nodded, then followed the finger's path. She relayed the message, and the man looked warily at Rin, then Sesshoumaru, then back. He ventured closer, within easy speaking distance, but kept an eye on Rin's sword.

"Let me get this straight. According to that child there, you are youkai, and don't want her because she's not old enough."

"Leave it to the minds of children," Rin laughed. "No, we don't want her but age has nothing to do with it. We just need a place to spend the night, and we'll be on our way in the morning. I can pay you."

"What about him? I don't want to wake up in the morning to find our livestock slaughtered."

"If I wanted your livestock it would be long gone by now, human."

"He'll behave, I promise."

"You what? You will promise no such thing, you have absolutely no power over me or my actions."

"Well you're being a jerk."

The man was staring at the two as if they had sprouted horns.

"You... You're but a human woman!"

"Yeah? Really?"

"But you carry a sword, and have power over a youkai!"

"She does not!"

"Are you a priestess? "

"No."

"Then what-"

"Mind your own business, human."

"Excuse us a second, all right?" To Sesshoumaru she whispered, "What is wrong with you all of a sudden?"

"I don't like being here, I hate the smell of this place, and I want us to leave. Right now."

"You're free to go."

"I hate you for this."

"I didn't ask you to follow me."

"I should just kill you and forget any of this even happened. I could, you know."

"If you were going to, you would have already."

Sesshoumaru gave her a glare that would have wilted plants. She grinned at him. Growling, he turned back to the villager, whose amusement was written all over his face.

"If any harm comes to her," he said levelly, "I swear every living creature who's ever even been to this village will be killed."

"Yes, sir."

The amusement was gone.

"Bye Sesshy! See you in the morning!"

With an audible growl the youkai disappeared back up the hill, leaving the villagers to emerge from their homes.

Stupid humans. Stupid stupid humans. Stupid stupid stupid...

The youkai sat a little distance upwind of the village, watching it in the dark. Every once in a while someone would scurry from one house to another, but otherwise the night was quiet. Sesshoumaru lay back, his silver hair fanning out over the grass. Stars twinkled down at him, millions more then he could ever count. The moon was gone, making them all the brighter.

What was wrong with sleeping outside, anyway? Much better than in some building, no air, all the sounds muted, three other people within a yard of you... Uck.

Maybe that was why Rin liked it. Humans were social creatures, much more so than youkai. She said she was not with her own kind... She as wrong. All humans were the same.

No matter how they smelled.

Weren't they? Maybe not all bad, but still the same. And nothing for a youkai to be dealing with.

She didn't belong with him. He didn't belong with her.

It wouldn't end well.

Assured, the daiyoukai stood, turned from the village, and disappeared into the starry night.

Rim had been taken in by the village headman, mostly out of admiration. No sooner had Sesshoumaru left then the village returned to normal, with the exception of the disappearance of some of the young women. They were seeking out the brave woman who dressed like a man and held youkai at her whims.

"I've only known him for a week-"

"It only takes that long to cast a spell?"

"Teach us!"

"Yes!"

"Where'd you find him, anyway?"

"I want one."

Giggles followed last comment.

"Yumi, you're such a perv."

"Look at his face and tell me you're not!"

"The spell!"

"There's no spell," Rin assured them.

"But he hasn't eaten you?"

"I don't think so." She patted her torso. "Nope, still here!"

"He must love you then!"

"Does he?"

"That's so romantic!"

"... I don't think he loves me."

"What other explanation is there?"

"Maybe he just doesn't want to eat you YET."

"I don't think that's it either."

"Well, you wouldn't, would you?"

"That's right!"

"No, I don't think he would go out of his way to follow me if he was just going to eat me."

"But that's what youkai do, isn't it?"

"I dunno. I've only met one."

"I used to live in a village that was plagued with all sorts of demons." One girl in the back piped up. "They used to come all the time and eat people. Only the huge, horrible youkai, though."

The focus of the girls' attention had shifted.

"What about the others?"

"Aren't they all horrible?"

"Oh, no, some of them looked like people. But much, much better."

"Like the one that came with Rin!" Someone cooed.

"And what did they do?" Rin asked.

"Most of them were women, They would find men from the field, who would take one look at their faces and wander off, never to be heard from again."

"How awful!"

"Dreadful!"

"The only male I ever saw..."

"What?"

"Tell us?"

"According to her father, a girl from the village fell in love with the youkai."

"Did he love her back?"

"Mm-hmm. They even..."

She dropped her voice to a whisper, and the others didn't have to hear to know what was said. Guilty giggles bounced around the room.

"What happened to them?"

"Did it have a romantic ending?"

"Don't stop there!"

The girl didn't look so happy anymore.

"Her father said she got sick. She had to stay inside all the time, she never came out. After a while, they found out she was going to have a baby."

"No!"

"A hanyou?"

"Well duh."

"The father came for her, but her father got all the village men together. They were going to kill all three of them, when the baby was born."

"Why then?"

"They wanted to make sure the child was hanyou."

"They all got killed?"

"What an awful story!"

"The father escaped with his son, but the mother got killed."

"That's what comes from dealing with youkai."

All heads turned to see the speaker. An old priest stood in the door, giving disapproving looks to the girls gathered around Rin.

"Mark my words, girl, no good shall ever come from dealing with youkai. I have lived to hear, and see for myself, many of such stories unfold, and they shall always end in death."

He glared at the other young women, who bowed and scurried out of the room like field mice. Then, sighing, he sat in front of Rin.

"Child, the direction you come from has been ravaged by bandits, and many survivors have found our village. I don't know your business, or your past. But your dress and company would suggest that you were on your own. I beg of you. Stay here. You can find yourself a good husband. You can lead a good, normal life, befitting of a young woman."

"This is what I want."

"Indeed it is. But think of your future. Do you think you can live this way forever? What shall you do when you are approaching the end of your life, as I am? Will you still carry your sword?"

"I... I'll..."

"Think long and hard. The being you travel with is powerful, anyone could tell to look at him. But another thing, known only to those who have known them all their lives: The word of a youkai is as worthless as dust, and nothing is sacred to them. When you can no longer walk beside him, he shall leave you behind, and think nothing of it, for that is the way of his kind."

The priest stood, leaving Rin on the ground, with significantly lower spirits.

"Make sure you make the right choice."

The wind from the door swinging shut blew out the single candle, leaving Rin in the dark, and for the first time, alone.

Well, damn. Why is it that I set out to write a happy bouncy story and end up with something like this? This is PIR, all over again. (For those of you who haven't read that, PIR was the cousin of GIR, a happy bouncy robot from the TV show Invader Zim. It was supposed to be a light, funny story that my little sister asked me to write. In the end she and Gir end up orbiting over the destroyed Earth. She had locked herself inside her mind with the spirit of the boy she killed because he didn't love her back.)

Anyway, yeah, review and tell me if you even want any more.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

Okay, for this chapter I dredged up everything I know about love. I don't know much, I've never been in love. But I have read a lot of romances. Here's what I know:

Love is blind.

It's also deaf, dumb, and very, very stupid.

But it's very pleasant.

And, one other thing. There is no pain like loving someone you know you cannot have. (THAT I know about.)

Message to everyone reading, about the fluffy: IT IS NOT A TAIL. I have proof! Next time you get a chance, watch the episode where Rin (the real Rin) is introduced. He's leaning against a tree, and it's spread out behind him, and you can clearly see both sides of it. Go look if you don't believe me.

Chapter warning: More physical contact. This is not my shining moment, and actually, I don't like this chapter much. Muddle through it, the next will be better, I promise.

The next morning Rin ate and then hurried to the border of the village to look for Sesshoumaru. She had no idea where he had gone, and knew it would be useless to look for him. If he wanted to be found, he would come to her. She made her way to the outskirts of the rice paddies, then to the edge of the forest, and then into the forest itself.

But he didn't come.

Sesshoumaru, through pure force of will, didn't move.

He was better off without her.

Hell, she was better off without him.

She was fine on her own.

She had been before, right?

Well, wrong actually.

She was better off with her own kind.

She has none of her kind.

Don't be stupid, all humans are alike, every one of them.

She's the same as the marauders who destroyed her village?

Yes. No. I don't know.

See? Better off without all of this indecision.

But she'd be waiting. She'd wait for him...

She'd get over it. Humans were quick to forget.

She probably wouldn't even wait. When he didn't come, she'd leave on her own.

It's not like she asked him to come with her. It's not like she needed him.

Needed him like he needed her.

His eyes widened. Had he really thought that?

He had.

"Rin!"

He wasn't coming.

The priest was right. The word of a youkai was nothing.

He had left her.

But it's not like she cared. They'd only been a few days since she met him.

And, yeah, he'd saved her life, but not through any particular good-naturedness on his part.

Right?

That's what he said, at least.

No problem. She'd go off on her own.

That's what she'd been planning from the start.

It's not like he cared.

It's not like he missed her.

It's not like he needed her.

Needed her like she needed him.

Her eyes widened. Had she really thought that?

She had.

And she was right. She needed him, and he hadn't cared enough to even say goodbye.

She sunk to the ground, looking back through the trees at the village. Maybe that was where she belonged after all. With her own kind.

A voice popped up in the back of her head, squeaking that they were not her kind, but she ignored it.

Humans were humans, youkai were youkai. They did not mix.

And then he was there, next to her.

And he was holding her, and telling her that he was wrong. He needed her.

And didn't she need him back?

"Yes. I do."

"I'm glad."

She held him back, and they stayed that way for a long time.

"Where to now?"

"Wherever we want."

Sesshoumaru smiled, a real smile. The town was long, far behind them, and they weren't going back. Rin showed him a flower she had found with three extra petals. She added it to the bouquet she was working on.

Rin watched the ground for grasshoppers, or pretty flowers, or whatever caught her eye.

What she saw were three gravestones, set into the ground. She walked over to them, reading the worn names carved on the surface. She laid her flowers on top of one of them.

"Sesshoumaru?"

"Yeah?"

"Someday, when I die, will you promise not to forget about me?"

"I promise."

Like she needed to ask. Whether he wanted to or not, Sesshoumaru would never forget her.

Ahead of them, plains and forests spread before beautiful purple mountains.

For all the cliched horror of it, she took his hand in her own, and they started toward the mountains. More and more often they passed villages that weren't destroyed, and soon the destruction of what was behind them seemed more like a story than a real thing.

"There's so many people."

"They're probably being protected by some lord. It's more common in remote areas like this."

Sesshoumaru looked down at Rin.

"If you want to go back to one of them, I will wait for you again."

"No. I'll stay with you. I've found my kind."

"In me?"

"Mm- hmm."

By nightfall they had reached the mountains. They sat on a cliff and watched the sun go down, disappearing behind the huge panorama of Japan. Rin sat leaning against Sesshoumaru, one of his arms around her shoulder. Idly he twisted a lock of hair around one of his claws.

He knew what her scent was, now. It was human, but had something embedded in it, like a precious jewel in a brass mold. He smelled it, and it made him think of being a child again, of music, of his mother before she died, or his father. It made him think of long nights spent catching fireflies, or playing games.

Rin smelled of happiness.

But he didn't need her smell to feel that way now. Rin made him happy, just because she was... her.

He looked down at her face, to find she was looking up at him. As the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, he kissed her, and she kissed him back, and they both knew joy.

High above them, a solitary figure turned from the sight, disappearing back into the mountains.

Yes, that sucked. But it had to be done. (Kicks self in head)

Oww.

Oh, just one more little intellectual nugget. Your parents will tell you that the grass always looks greener on the other side. This is true. It's not an illusion, the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence, however, the pesticides are giving everyone over there cancer.

So while your grass might be kinda brown and straggly, at least it won't kill you.

Weiver sdrawkcab dna s'tel ees ohw yllautca sdaer eseht sgniht! .


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter six.

Thank you for muddling through that last blasphemy of a chapter. Here's the reason it was so bad: I suck at writing romance, especially physical romance, just because of lack of experience. However, it was necessary.

And this chapter has something I'm good at despite lack of experience: violence!

Chapter warning: Violence, more death.

It was over an hour later when it started to rain. This was a bit of a problem because they were, after all, on a cliff. Cliffs are nice for watching sunsets, however, they are notoriously bad protection from rain. Not to mention they are kinda tricky to be on at night.

"Hey! Look up there!" Rin pointed to a place higher on the rock wall, where there was a light shining. "Looks like a cave."

"Somebody's already up there."

"So? I'm sure they'll let us stay until the rain lets up."

Sesshoumaru would have protested again, but it was starting to come down pretty hard. He really hated heavy rains like this; it made the air thick, and scents didn't spread at all. Having to rely almost completely on eyesight made him uneasy.

"Come on, there's a path and everything."

Sesshoumaru grimaced and followed Rin. As they got nearer to the mouth of the cave, they started to see a yellow light coming form inside. Whoever it was had built a fire.

The entrance to the cave was barely big enough for three people to get through at once. Rin had duck as she want in.

"Hello? Anybody here?"

The fire was further back, beyond a turn in the tunnel. Wondering why anyone would go back that far, the cave was dry, Rin went deeper. Feeling something weird in the it, Sesshoumaru followed closely.

"That's weird. There's nobody here. There's just a fire."

Rin knelt to look at the dancing flames.

"What the heck? Look at this. What were they... burning...?"

"Rin? Are you okay?"

And then he got the scent of the smoke. It wasn't wood. It was a herb, found deep in the valleys.

Taijiya used it to... oh, shit.

"Rin! Don't inhale any of the smoke! Rin?"

Rin's eyes were unfocused, and as Sesshoumaru took her up in his arms, he wasn't feeling so hot either. Why hadn't he picked up the scent before?

Trying not to breathe, he carried Rin back down the tunnel toward the entrance. Rain or not, he had to get her out of this cave. The air was already becoming hazy with the smoke.

The cave's entrance was blocked. Four taijiya stood just inside the entrance, gas masks covering most of their faces. Their armor and weapons were made of the bones of demons, and by the look on their faces they were here to get some more.

Sesshoumaru slowly backed up, considering his options. If he didn't get Rin out of here fast, the air would kill her. His own vision was starting to get blurry from lack of oxygen. He would have to breathe soon. All the taijiya had to do was keep him from leaving the cave, and their job would be done for them.

"She's human," he said, lowering Rin to the ground. "Leave her out of this."

"A human who joins with a demon is as bad as one."

"Well, if that's how you feel about it," Sesshoumaru said, raising his right hand, "Then I'm going to have to kill you."

The whip flicked out, taking down the two in the front, but the other two fell back, avoiding the attack. One of them had a spear-like thing, which he hurled at Sesshoumaru, and then while the youkai was busy avoiding that, the other came at him with a sword. He managed to get a good slice in Sesshoumaru's arm before the youkai went through him with his poison claws.

With one left, he couldn't help it. He needed air. He inhaled and regretted it. His lungs filled with poison fire, and he choked as the last taijiya rushed at him, the man's own sword held high.

It occurred to Sesshoumaru that he was about to die. And then Rin would be killed.

Rin, as it turned out, didn't see much in this future either, because she pulled her mind back together, and drew her sword. The taijiya didn't expect an attack from that side, and definitely not a sword. The look of shock stayed on his face even after death.

"Sesshoumaru? Come on, we have to get out of here."

The air outside the cave was like water on a fire. The two of them coughed as the poison smoke was purged from their lungs.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm youkai, I'll live. You?"

"Never been better."

"Liar."

A click brought their attention to the outcropping above the mouth of the cave. Another taijiya stood on it, a bow and arrow in his hands.

"One more?" Rin asked.

"More than one," Sesshoumaru replied, looking around. Hidden in the shadows, masked by the rain, more taijiya were approaching. Each of them had an arrow.

"Oh, shit," Rin said eloquently.

"On three!" the man above the cave called to his men.

"One!"

Sesshoumaru looked for any way out at all. They were surrounded, even from above. If he tried to fight them, they'd shoot.

"Two!"

He pulled Rin to himself. Maybe he could shield her body with his own. Maybe he could save-

"Three!"

Countless bowstrings twanged, releasing countless arrows. Sesshoumaru grimaced as the metal arrowheads bit into his body. In his arms, Rin screamed, and he knew he had failed her.

The world finally went black around him, and the last thing he heard were Rin's ragged sobs.

To be continued...

Betcha thought something was gonna jump in and save them, dintcha? Yet another way my stories differ from those of Walt Disney, though the original Grim's tales were pretty good. In one, the evil stepmother was put in a barrel with nails coming through the sides and rolled down a hill into a river. See, we should tell little kids more stories like THAT.

Anyway, this story will indeed be continued.

Stick around, review, tell me what you think!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven.  
Well, thank you for continuing to read despite the fact that this is probably the darkest romance you've ever read. And thank you all, for the reviews, I really appreciate them. You will be greatly rewarded when I rule the universe.

Sesshoumaru woke up to incredible pain. Over the course of three seconds, he remembered the events that had given him such pain, and he started.  
Rin!  
He was somewhere very dark. It had the cool atmosphere of a cave, but it smelled of death. Rubbing his head, he sat up, looking around. Dead youkai were everywhere. This must be where the taijiya left the bodies of those they killed.  
Quickly, Sesshoumaru examined the damage. Though the arrows themselves were gone, the marks remained, and there were wounds covering his back, sides, and the outside of his arms, which he had wrapped around Rin to try to protect her.  
He hadn't succeeded. His sleeves, which had fallen down Rin's back, were peppered with holes, and dyed a dark brown, almost black, with a blood that was not his.  
He was tired, his body was working overtime trying to seal up the holes, but he knew he had to find Rin.  
She wasn't here, and by the smell, she never had been.  
There was the smell of human, though. He was able to follow it upwards, to the outside of the cave. There was a village, no doubt populated by the same taijiya who had tried to kill him. If she was there, there was nothing he could do.  
From the entrance to the cave, he was able to follow, with some difficulty, his own scent back to the place where they had been attacked. He found Rin's scent, grossly distorted by the amount of blood on the ground. They had taken her in a completely different direction.  
Why?  
Could she still be alive? They had said she was as bad as he, but humans could not turn their backs on their own kind, could they?  
He followed the mix of scents off the stone cliff. It descended, going into the valleys, over many of the same paths that the two of them had walked up just the day before.  
As he walked he found the blood on the ground decreasing. Her scent was changing as well. It was becoming more human, losing the exotic tinge that had drawn him to her in the first place.  
He knew what that meant.  
Rin was dead, had been dead even as the taijiya had carried her into the valley.  
But he followed her anyway, because there was just the slightest chance that he was wrong, and he had to know.  
The scent ended at a grave. There were several graves around her, older. Why they had chosen to put her here, Sesshoumaru didn't know. He noticed a splash of color on one of the graves. He looked closer.  
It was the flowers Rin herself had placed there, only the day before.  
Sesshoumaru almost smiled. She would have appreciated the irony.  
The words she had said as she put the flowers there came back to him.  
"Someday, when I die, will you promise not to forget about me?"  
"I promise, Rin. I promise."

Epilogue  
Over three hundred years had passed since Rin's death, and Sesshoumaru hardly ever thought of it. Every once in a while he would see a flower with an extra set of leaves, or something of the sort, and he would think of her, but hose moments came less and less frequently as he gave up looking at the ground for favor of the sky.  
His father had been killed protecting a human woman, and the half-breed baby she carried. Sesshoumaru hated him for such a sacrifice, and hated the woman and the baby, his half-brother, for causing him to make it. It did occur to him, vaguely, that he had attempted to do the same, but he shook it off.  
His brother grew older, and they had their fights, almost, but not quite, to the death.  
This one had been the closest yet, leaving Sesshoumaru badly injured. If not for the tenseiga's protective abilities, he would have been killed.  
Now, badly hurt and transported by the tenseiga to a very unfamiliar place, he felt he had no choice but to lie low, at least until his injuries repair themselves enough to allow him to fight.  
A rustling in the bushes brought him out of his thoughts. Instinct took over, and he sat up quickly, growling at whatever was making the sound. His eyes turned red, signifying that he was, in face, a youkai.  
To his surprise it was not a youkai he saw there, nor a hunter, but a lone human girl, no older than seven. She gasped, hiding behind a tree.   
'Solves that problem,' he thought. 'She'll run off and I'll never see her again.'  
But she didn't. She actually moved forward, toward the youkai.  
He didn't move, but his eyes did regain their normal golden color.  
She moved almost close enough for him to reach out and touch her, but he didn't move. The smell of human blood would bring bigger enemies, and those he didn't want to mess with.  
She took in his shattered armor, the rips in his clothes, and the blood surrounding those rips.  
Sesshoumaru watched her. She had the appearance of someone who was used to getting the thin end of the stick. Her clothes were old and worn, and there was dirt smudged on her face and arms. She was probably an orphan.  
Even as he thought this, she turned back to the woods, running off, leaving nothing but a faint reminder of her scent.  
Sesshoumaru stiffened. He'd smelled that before... a long time ago...  
A new wave of pain came from the wound on his shoulder, inflicted when his half brother had wielded the windscar against him. The youkai grimaced, and lay back against the fluffy. His eyes felt heavy, and before he even realized he was tired, he was asleep.

She came again, first with water, then with food. She placed it, hesitantly, just within reach, and ran off. She remained at the edge of the clearing watching to see what the youkai would do.  
"Your kindness is wasted," he told her one of these times. "I don't eat human food."  
He was hit with a vague sense of deja vous, but shook it off.  
He could leave soon anyway.  
The girl continued to bring food to him. Then she started to show up with bruises on her face and arms. Once he asked her about them, but she only smiled at him. And then it hit him. Where he had smelled her scent before. A rush of memories came back to him in an instant. He kept his face impassive.  
:What are you smiling about? I simply asked a question. I don't care, I'm just curious."  
She continued to smile. When she returned to her village, he was almost sad that he would never see her again.  
Almost.  
He checked his shoulder again, and, finding the cuts gone, he stood up, walking away from her village. Jaken ought to be around here, somewhere...

Sesshoumaru threw a second rock at Jaken, knocking him off Aun's head. Like he, the great lord Sesshoumaru could be killed by a half-breed like Inuyasha. He was disgusted to be thought of so lowly.  
The wind blew, replacing the calm scent of the field with the wicked smell of blood. The blood was familiar, and he glanced at his kimono, half expecting to see it covered, once again, with the blood of another. But it was the same pristine white as always.  
The wind brought a new scent, the scent of wolves.  
"I know this blood," he murmured.  
Jaken jumped up, rubbing his head.  
"Did you say something, lord Sesshoumaru?"  
But the youkai was already gone, into the forest.  
AS he approached the town, the smell of wolves became stronger. He passed the place where he had lain, which was heavy with the smell of his own blood.  
Jaken ran up behind him, trying to keep up with the taller youkai's steps, like a small child trying to keep pace with their father. There were questions in his eyes, but Sesshoumaru ignored them. he had no time for questions.  
Up ahead, something lay on the path. Sesshoumaru stopped. The blood's smell was too strong, he'd smelled it before, so long ago...  
Jaken went ahead.  
"She's a goner for sure. she must have been attacked by wolves. See the teeth markings?"  
Then, seeing the look on Sesshoumaru's face. "Do you know this pathetic human?  
Sesshoumaru was still lost in his memories. Unbidden, his right hand went to the tenseiga. It was already drawn before Sesshoumaru even realized he had moved. Jaken's look had gone to one of pure horror, and he backed out of the way as Sesshoumaru advanced.  
The daiyoukai watched as imps materialized out of the air, climbing on the young girl's body.  
'I can see them... they are from the underworld.'  
"I'll do another test."  
He swung the sword, taking out all of the imps in one shot.  
He took the child into his arms.  
'I couldn't save her then... maybe I can, now.'  
He watched for any sign of life, but the girl remained still. Then she moaned, and opened her eyes, looking up at him.

Rin watched the tall youkai walk away. Beside he, Jaken was crying about something or another, but she ignored him. Now her mind was back in a memory that was not hers, of Sesshoumaru in the red light of a sunset on a mountain she had never been to.  
But it felt like the best memory she had ever had.  
Leaving Jaken behind, she ran after Sesshoumaru, not knowing what would happen next, and not really caring.  
It would all work out okay.

Okay, I managed to preserve some kind of bittersweet happy ending thing, but you all still probably hate me for killing her, don't you?  
I knew it. Anyway, I hope I at least managed to avoid making her into a Mary-sue. (For those of you who don't know what a Mary sue is, it's a stereotypical fan character who's perfect for the romance, and you just KNOW it's the authoress. For Inuyasha it would be another half-breed, etc.)  
Gotta go, please review.


End file.
